Industrial machines, such as but not limited to, extruders or injection molding machines may make plastic objects from plastic resin pellets. The pellets may be placed in a hopper and may enter one end of a barrel of the industrial machine. A screw may rotate in the barrel. The pellets may be melted by friction of the rotating screw and a heated wall of the barrel. The rotating screw can also mix the pellets, which may be beneficial for making colored plastic objects.
Over time, maintenance of the screw and barrel may be required. In order to clean the screw and/or barrel, the screw may be removed from the barrel, which may be referred to as a changeover. Screws used in industrial machines may be very hot, long, large, and/or heavy. As a result, the removal of the screw from the barrel may take significant time and require significant manual labor. Once the screw is removed from the barrel, the screw and/or barrel may need to be cleaned. The cleaning process and/or general maintenance of the screw and barrel performed during the changeover may also be time-consuming and ergonomically challenging for operators.
It would be desirable to have a support cart that, among other things, is portable and adjustable to accommodate various industrial machines and screw sizes which may reduce changeover time, improve the ergonomics and labor to remove the screw from the barrel, and/or provide a support structure for the tools used to clean the barrel.